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Dana H. Myers Dana H. Myers is offline
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Default Speaking of Baby Backs

Nonnymus wrote:

> My own theory is that too much meat inhibits the flavor of the smoke and
> rub from getting to the inside parts and cuts down on flavor. To me,
> this seems like a seminal issue for ribs, but I can't recall ever
> reading anyone talking about it.


Actually, I believe this issue comes up all the time, in multiple
parts.

Part 1. How much rub is enough? It seems like you're partial to
the flavor of the rub permeating the ribs. Since ribs are a thin
'cut' of meat, there's a lot of surface area and thus a lot of area
for rub to go, compared to the overall volume of meat. A thicker cut
of meat will have less rub-to-volume; however, you'll see dicussion
of how much bark to mix in, it's the same thing.

Part 2. How much smoke is enough? It sounds like you're partial
to the flavor of the smoke permeating the ribs.

Part 3. How to get the smoke as deep as possible into the ribs?
This dicussion comes up primarily as a discussion of cooking
temperature. A lower, slower cooking temperature will result
a in a deeper penetration of smoke; hotter, faster cooking seals
up the meat faster. This gets into a discussion of slow starting
temperatures and higher cooking temperatures.

Parts 1 and 2 are a matter of personal taste and style. Part 3
is a matter of technique to achieve the desired results.

I find that I prefer meatier ribs and tend toward a lower starting
temperature, which might get the same result as your cooking temperature
and thinner ribs. I just think it's better to have slightly thicker
meat on the bones, cooked more gently, that it's likely to stay juicier
that way.

So, I don't think it's as easy as "meatier or thinner ribs?".

Dana